As usual, we were delighted by the quantity and quality of the response to our recent survey. This one was an attempt to gauge interest in two sorts of tastings that might be organised by the JancisRobinson.com team: relatively intimate ones on Tuesday evenings at The Quality Chop House and larger events more in the mould of our Barolo Nights.
Thank you very much to the total of 331 people who took the trouble to respond to our survey. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the great majority of respondents are interested in one or both of these sorts of tastings, but the numbers give us an encouraging base on which to build.
A. Small, Tuesday evening tastings at The Quality Chop House, Clerkenwell
An encouraging 85% of respondents said they'd be interested in these.
Only 15% wanted a structured introductory wine course (there is probably a surfeit of these in London already).
33% wanted an advanced wine course.
45% wanted blind-tasting practice.
And an overwhelming 72% wanted individual tastings based on specific themes (see below).
Preferred themes
Respondents were completely free to write in their own suggestions for themes for tastings, and below are the percentages that indicate the number of times a particular word, or group of words, was mentioned. We’re heartened by these because they suggest themes that are currently under-represented in London, a departure from the ‘New v Old World' or 'introduction to Bordeaux' tastings that already proliferate.
General themes
Regional: 44%
Verticals: 38%
New/emerging/unusual/under-represented wines: 34%
Varietal: 21%
Influence of winemaking: 11%
Horizontals: 11%
New v Old: 4.5%
Food matching: 3.5%
Expensive/top-end wines: 3.5%
Faults: 1.75%
Natural/low-sulphur: 1%
Specific regional suggestions
Burgundy: 27%
Spain: 17%
Italy: 16%
Bordeaux: 15%
Rhône: 14%
USA: 13.5%
Champagne: 7%
Germany: 6%
Loire: 5.5%
Portugal: 5%
Languedoc: 4%
Australia: 3%
Alsace: 3%
Varietal/stylistic suggestions
Riesling: 18%
Pinot Noir: 13.5%
Nebbiolo: 5%
Sweet wine: 4%
Chenin Blanc: 1%
One additional comment of note was the proposed ‘opportunity for people to bring their own wines’. Quite a few people have odd bottles in their cellar awaiting the right occasion, presumably. Perhaps there could be a bring-a-bottle dinner after some of the tastings? Things will doubtless evolve organically.
Price
We gave no guidance here and respondents cited sums from £10 to £1,000 but the most frequently suggested maximum ticket prices were:
£100 (20%)
£50 (13%)
£80 (6%)
£75 (5%)
£25 (4.5%)
£40 (4%)
B. Larger, Barolo Night-style tastings
Of our respondents, 81%, a very slightly smaller proportion than expressed interest in smaller Tuesday night tastings, said they'd be interested in these.
Themes
It was interesting that a great majority, 62%, said they had no preference. Otherwise, responses were very similar to those expressed for the smaller tastings as reported above.
Suggested number of wines
Everything from 6 to 100 was suggested with the most frequent responses:
15-20 (13%)
25-30 (12%)
30-40 (10%)
up to 10 (9%)
So it seems as though our Barolo Night (with 46 wines) was at the top end of what people want.
The ideal evening of the week
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were by far the most popular with Sunday (both our Barolo Nights were on a Sunday because Caravan Kings Cross is closed that evening) being the least popular!
Ideal timings
From 7 pm to 9 pm was the most popular by far.
The importance of substantial food
Only 8% of respondents thought it very important to provide anything more substantial than, say, cheese and biscuits to eat.
Price
We gave no guidance here and respondents cited sums from £20 to £300 but the most frequently suggested maximum ticket prices were:
£100 (23%)
£60-£75 (13.5%)
£50 (11%)
£120-£150 (8.5%)
£40 (8%)
D. Other general comments on tastings of either type
The following were repeatedly mentioned:
Please hold some outside London (in fact, this is the most common comment by far).
We completely understand the thirst for wine tastings outside the capital; it must be hugely frustrating to read about all the events that take place in London. For us, however, organising any of these events would be icing on the JR.com cake, so to speak. We certainly don’t want to distract manpower from our core business of tasting, travelling and writing for your delectation. The beauty of holding events in London events is that (a) we have access to excellent locations, (b) no one has to spend extra time travelling (with heavy, fragile bottles) to, and staying in, less well-known locations and (c) we can be reasonably sure of enough participants.
If and when we have a system successfully running in London we can of course consider the occasional event elsewhere, but we will have to survey you very carefully to be sure of locating it in the right place. I have a horrid feeling that the outside-Londoners who took the trouble to respond to our survey are very widely distributed. And I’m afraid that for the reasons spelt out above, tickets to events outside London would have to be more expensive than those in the capital. Sorry.
Barolo Night was the ideal format (except the day of the week, perhaps – see above).
We are delighted that we seemed to get the formula right for our Barolo Nights this year and last.
Don't let any large event become too crowded.
Good to have this point made clearly. Of course we have to be sure that we have a big enough attendance to make an event financially viable. Do feel free to suggest suitable locations for large week-night tastings via Contact.
Impartiality in the choice of wines and maintaining the integrity of JancisRobinson.com is very important.
You can be absolutely sure of this. We would be crazy to compromise our independence by getting too close to individual producers, importers or retailers. The whole point would be to offer something of real interest to thoughtful wine enthusiasts rather than something governed by expediency and financial considerations – although of course the cost of the wines will be directly reflected in the ticket price for each tasting.